When "porn troll" Prenda law was at the top of its game, making millions by suing thousands of users over alleged porn downloads, it took an audacious step: it sued its critics for defamation.

Upset at nasty blog comments calling Prenda-linked lawyers "brain-damaged" and "assclowns," the firm went ahead and sued Alan Cooper and his lawyer Paul Godfread. Cooper, a former housekeeper for Prenda-linked lawyer John Steele, had become concerned that someone at Prenda had falsely signed his name on copyright assignment documents used in lawsuits.

To Cooper and Godfread, the defamation suit looked like retaliation. They had sued Prenda over the identity theft issue just weeks earlier.

Prenda's defamation suit failed totally, and now Prenda and its one named attorney, Paul Duffy, will have to pay Godfread and Cooper's legal expenses for this case. The reasoning for the sanction is laid out in an order (PDF) published yesterday by US District Judge John Darrah, who oversaw the lawsuit. Defense lawyers will submit an itemized list of their expenses in the coming days.

Prenda-watchers knew this judicial sanction was on the way, since Darrah mentioned it at a hearing several days ago.

Among the issues he dinged Prenda for: Duffy improperly tried to file an amended complaint, then claimed that defense lawyers had ignored the complaint on purpose. And Prenda lawyers kept repeating themselves, trying to re-argue cases they'd lost already.

After the case was transferred to the Northern District of Illinois, Prenda again moved to remand, filing essentially the same motion that the Court of the Southern District of Illinois had denied. Prenda had no legal basis for “renewing” this previously rejected motion. While making that attempt, the judge found that Duffy also misstated what the Southern District court had said.

To top it off, Duffy lied about it in court, Darrah explained. "[T]he record reflects that the Southern District of Illinois Court said nothing of the sort," wrote Darrah. "Duffy had the opportunity to address this lie in his response to the Motion for Sanctions and did not... To fabricate what a federal judge said in a ruling before another court falls well outside the bounds of proper advocacy and demonstrates a serious disregard for the judicial process."

The sanctions order is yet another judicial pounding for Prenda, which has several cases on appeal and has paid for others.

Undercut by voicemail braggadocio

John Steele and Paul Hansmeier are widely believed to be the masterminds behind Prenda, according to defense lawyers, and now judges, working on Prenda cases.

In this case, Duffy tried to file an amended complaint in violation of Illinois court rules. To do so, he told court personnel that the original complaint had never been served.

That argument was undercut by John Steele's own voicemail, explained defense lawyer Erin Russell in an interview with Ars.

"As usual, John Steele shot his mouth off," said Russell. "He called [Godfread] right after he got served and said, 'Hey, I heard you just got served!' And he always starts the voicemail with 'This is John Steele.' So, I was able to prove they did know [the first complaint had been served.]"

Prenda's suggestions that the other side couldn't prove "awareness" of proper legal service was mere "sophistry" that was sanctionable on its own, wrote Darrah. Prenda was talking around things—it was misleading court personnel about the service issue.

Steele at one point had his own defamation lawsuit, but it was withdrawn. Lawsuits filed individually by Duffy and Prenda were consolidated into the case that Prenda ultimately lost and has now been sanctioned for.

The full voicemail, and other grounds for sanctions against Prenda, is outlined in Russell's September motion for sanctions (PDF).

Even before the January hearing, the fact that sanctions were on the way in this case came as no surprise to Russell.

"It [the sanctions order] reflected the concerns that Judge Darrah raised in court each time these issues were discussed," she said. "It was clear that he knew he was being misled and knew what was going on."

Prenda lawyers may be feeling overwhelmed at this point, as their fight against more legal trouble continues on many fronts. Most of their various sanctions are being appealed. An account of a recent Georgia hearing in a Prenda case, published on the anonymous blog Fight Copyright Trolls, describes the hearing ending with the judge ordering Mark Lutz, who owns some Prenda shell companies, to find a new attorney in that case.

FWIW, it's usually pretty uncommon for a court to issue sanctions and require one side to pay the other's legal bills. A court will usually assume positive intent if there's an issue. So when a judge does this, it's pretty significant. Plus, it gets noticed by other courts. Prenda & Co. probably has zero leeway with other courts now. All an opposing counsel needs to do is show a judge all the various sanctions in other jurisdictions when they highlight their own issues with Prenda, and all assumptions of good intentions go right out the window. It's pretty much a cascade failure at this point, if it hasn't already been for months.

Wait, you mean to tell me that I can literally lie about what a judge said, ignore procedure, and be with half a dozen sanctions on me yet NOT get thrown in jail for a few days via contempt of court? I think I'm most impressed that they are still going to court as opposed to getting brought to one in orange jumpsuits.

This has been one of the most fun serials ever! Sure, it’s a bit repetitive, what with Prenda losing every episode, but it is becoming an art form all its own. I can't wait for the next episode to be released.

I ran out of clever puns to write about these guys twenty articles ago. Talk about the story which just keeps on giving and giving.

At this point, puns and clever wordplay isn't even needed. "Prenda" has, itself, become synonymous with bullheaded hubris and a tendency to respond to logical challenges to bad defense by doubling down on that same disproved defense. They've become the joke, and hopefully the Jack Thompson treatment isn't far off.

It's really heartening to see such blatantly bad behavior punished. It almost gives me hope for someday stopping the total DMCA takedown abuse that we have today. Maybe someday you won't get your content pulled just because some corporation is willing to lie and say it is theirs because there is absolutely no penalty for lying, even when they do it thousands of times per day.

Sadly, Prenda is getting in trouble not so much with the scam they were running on internet denizens, but because they got a judge angry with their shenanigans. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, it looks like their karma will eventually be served, and hopefully this will make the issues more visible for other judges, but still.

FWIW, it's usually pretty uncommon for a court to issue sanctions and require one side to pay the other's legal bills. A court will usually assume positive intent if there's an issue. So when a judge does this, it's pretty significant. Plus, it gets noticed by other courts. Prenda & Co. probably has zero leeway with other courts now. All an opposing counsel needs to do is show a judge all the various sanctions in other jurisdictions when they highlight their own issues with Prenda, and all assumptions of good intentions go right out the window. It's pretty much a cascade failure at this point, if it hasn't already been for months.

After the public shaming (stuck the plaintiffs head through the petition and dragged them round all the courts) they were taken to the fleet and kept until they had paid the queen 10 shillings and the defendants 20 nobles.

After investigating further, I discovered that Ars has failed to mention three things:

1) He looked ghastly, and he had blood on the front of his white shirt. He also smelled horrible.2) He was missing half of his right arm.3) He answered every question from the judge with "Brains, I smell brainssss..."

I for one think the bullshit has gone long enough and I find myself aggravated that the judge skirts calling them out for what they are, liars and fraudsters ("Misleading" falls way short IMO). It has been proved with court records time and again that they are perjuring themselves in and out of the stand at any chance they get. Bring actual perjury and fraud charges, the evidence is more than enough.

Seems they are only slapped with sanctions without teeth that we know they are going to ignore in most cases. Had it been you or me in that courtroom we would have been dumped in jail more than 6 articles ago, Lawyers should be held to a higher standard not treated with kid's gloves like they are clueless to their transgressions.

I for one think the bullshit has gone long enough and I find myself aggravated that the judge skirts calling them out for what they are, liars and fraudsters ("Misleading" falls way short IMO). It has been proved with court records time and again that they are perjuring themselves in and out of the stand at any chance they get. Bring actual perjury and fraud charges, the evidence is more than enough.

Seems they are only slapped with sanctions without teeth that we know they are going to ignore in most cases. Had it been you or me in that courtroom we would have been dumped in jail more than 6 articles ago, Lawyers should be held to a higher standard not treated with kid's gloves like they are clueless to their transgressions.

It's all about precedent, i.e. don't shit where you eat. If they set a precedent by convicting lawyers and punishing them by anything more than a slap on the wrist, they're shooting themselves in the foot. Furthermore, the judicial system has a self interest in encouraging litigation, not discouraging it.

On the plus side, they’re certainly providing judges and judges’ support staffs (and court janitors and on and on…) a steady source of employment. On the minus side, guess who’s paying *full* court costs for endless appeals?

I am curious as to why there has been no mention of any involvement by the FBI or police.

Clearly, the judicial system at this point, at least the judges, have realized that Prenda has misled, deceived, and outright lied multiple times.

While I am not suggesting that there is a criminal case here, I'm surprised that the FBI hasn't gotten involved. Even if just to say, yeah, we are looking at Prenda.

Does the FBI ever announce that they are investigating someone? Does the IRS? And we have no idea what the various State Bar Associations are doing. I'd be willing to bet that Prenda is in the cross hairs of many people though.

While people still want to make "Prenda" the thing, I am a big supporter of Pretenda.I coined that phrase because they only pretended to practice law.The cases have been hollow from the beginning, and as you plumb the depths you see how much you can get away with in the legal system.They are the poster children for everything wrong in the legal system and hopefully lawmakers will actually close the holes in the system to prevent this sort of abuse.

say it with me...PRE-TEN-DA.

And to Steele, Hans, & Duffy... All my love. You put my nym, avatar, and words in 4 Federal dockets... hows that working out for ya?

This has been one of the most fun serials ever! Sure, it’s a bit repetitive, what with Prenda losing every episode, but it is becoming an art form all its own. I can't wait for the next episode to be released.

I would be much happier if they had done it like Netflix with House of Cards and released the whole thing at once.